Organizing in the Shadow of Academic Entrepreneurship, Excellence and Omnipresence

Drawing on an empirical case study conducted in a Belgian University [1], this article proposes a framework to analyze how academic organizations are both structuring and structured by academics’ strategies. First, it accounts for three major logics of action – Entrepreneurship, Excellence and Omnipresence – percolating three organizational dimensions – namely managerial discourses, formal and parallel structures [2]. Moreover, this paper proposes that these organizational dimensions constitute three different and always temporary states that are constantly being shaped by three phases of organizing processes – namely translation, inscription, enactment [6]. Second, drawing on Gherardi et al.’s metaphor of “shadow organizing” [3], the article identifies some ideal-typical strategies developed by academics: sober stowing away, selecting the local candidate, and invisible caring. The identification of these strategies opens up to discussing how academics are (pretending to) playing and applying the rules of the game, while also disengaging from them. In doing so, academics contribute to preserving and reinforcing the managerial discourse and the formal structure of their organization.